17 for 2017 : My Best Books of 2017

I always say I’m not going to keep doing it this way, that the numbers just can’t keep going up every year, but then I get to actually doing the list and discover that it works out. Again.

This is my list of the best books of my year, with a couple of Amy’s in the honorable mentions because she loved them so much. These are the books that either stuck with me, or that I kept trying to shove into other people’s hands, or both.

There’s more non-fiction this year than usual. It seems like it was a great year for narrative non-fiction that reads every bit as well as fiction. A couple of these are going to end up on my Hugo Awards nomination list, because they were absolutely awesome science fiction and/or fantasy that deserves a recognition. A special shout-out to The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis, her amazing debut novel, which was my first A+ review for the year.

And a grateful shout out to Kevin Hearne and his publishers for A Plague of Giants. I heard about this book while writing my SF/F Spotlight article for Library Journal, and just had to have it. Kevin not only gave me a quote for the article, but also helped me pester the publisher to get me an eARC from NetGalley (and, as it turned out, Edelweiss). I cast that net as wide as possible and hooked a real gem.

I have two other best lists, but they have different venues, and also different sets of restrictions, where this list is  whatever I want it to be. My best e-originals for 2017 are part of the Library Journal Best Books 2017 mega-article. And my best SFR for 2017 will appear in January, as part of the SFR Galaxy Awards.

Although 2017 certainly had its ups and downs in real life, the year in books was fantastic!

Best Books of 2017:

American War by Omar El Akkad
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Glass Houses by Louise Penny
Grant by Ron Chernow
The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis
The Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne
White Hot by Ilona Andrews
Wildfire by Ilona Andrews
The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone

Honorable Mentions:

Apollo 8 by Jeffrey Kluger
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai
Kith and Kin by Kris Ripper (guest review by Amy)
The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
Outsystem by M.D. Cooper (guest review by Amy)
Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai

7 thoughts on “17 for 2017 : My Best Books of 2017

  1. Great list of reads. The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis is still sitting on my TBR shelf, waiting a chance, but it sounds great. The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston didn’t make my 5-star list, but it was an amazing read.

  2. Louise Penny is my favorite author, and my favorite book of 2017 is Glass Houses, so that would be my pick, but of those I haven’t read, I’d choose “Grant. My dad was a Civil War buff and I always feel I should keep up on the new great books in his honor.

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